Pour un Homme de Caron sums up a lot of what you’d want in a traditional men’s perfume. It clearly draws a lot of inspiration from Guerlain’s Jicky, without copying it too much. Overall it’s similar sort of aromatic lavender and coumarin combo which oozes class and maturity. The sample I have is of the modern formulation, I have no experience with the older versions so I cannot make comparisons - but I can well imagine that the original is superior by a mile. The fresh sweetness of vanilla and coumarin combined with lavender and rosemary is still gorgeous, if a little synthetic smelling. Overall it’s a very nice scent, I don’t love it enough to warrant buying a full bottle, but it’s piqued my interest enough that I’m keen to look for an older version (if the price isn’t eye watering).
A harsh opening, very off-putting to me, but it calms down into a wonderful, creamy lavender scent. It's the slightly acerbic grandad of Beau de Jour, and as both of these stay on clothes forever, I can wear either with the jumper that still smells of the other a little bit. I love it after an hour, but the initial stage is a bit too much if you have to use public transport or be in a busy workplace. I'm surprised to see some reviews complain about the performance, to my nose this is an eternal beast. Update: I always recall a review on here calling this Shalimar Pour Homme. Of course it's mostly nothing like Shalimar, but I can see the point in the far drydown. Also, in the opening, the almost culinary nature of the rosemary reminds me of Granville by Dior. I've only ever experienced this specific foody herbiness in these two perfumes, and I'm here for it.
I don't get this in anyway. Why on earth would anyone want to smell this accurately of lavender? Lavender is a lovely soothing smell and I have to say that this is one of the most natural lavenders I've smelled. Maybe I should cut it some slack as it's been around since the 30's but I don't get it? The vanilla and musk are gentle basenotes which for my tastes just make a boring and unimaginative backdrop for the potency of lavender. My examples being... yes this is similar to Taste of heaven but at least that has a little more interest in other notes like absinthe and prominent vanilla. Or Eau de L'occitane which again has that super realistic lavender but also has a woody, peppery, hardness to dirty up the lavender a bit. I would never wear a fragrance so linear and even the beauty of lavender can become annoying and headache inducing after a while. Sorry but this is yet another classic I can't abide.
If anyone is bothered, please scroll down to my review below and you will notice me eating (a little) humble pie here. Although I didn't totally hate Caron Homme I just thought it was a little too linear for me, well I'm happy to declare that I can definitely perceive of the soft sweet vanilla base at the back of this thing. In fact upon wearing this again that massively accurate lavender opening truly does die back into a much softer affair which is really pleasant. My main concern now is the longevity and projection which isn't great but I'm a convert on this one I think it's a really nice fragrance and deserving of the praise it gets.
